Volume 27, Number 18 · November 20, 1980
Splitting Up
By Edgar Z. Friedenberg
The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle Over Sovereignty
by Jane Jacobs
Random House, 134 pp., $8.95
This small book is Jane Jacobs's first since she became a resident of Canada in the late 1960s. It is a tour de force, the kind of force that expresses itself through restraint and precision, like a laser beam used with such exquisite care as not to insult the distressed body it is intended to relieve. In The Death and Life of Great American Cities, and her other work, Jacob's principal virtues as a writer have consistently been lucidity and insight. In her new book, she has chosen to bring these virtues to bear on the most inflamed social question of a very touchy people; her fellow-citizens in her adopted country. She does so with a tact so fine that it's scary. This detracts nothing from her honesty and skill; and adds an interesting tension to her work.
Review, 1896 words
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